Elon & Twitter

[BitJam]

I really wish Elon and the "pro Elon" folks here would listen to two of Elon's biggest fans and boosters: Lex Fridman and Tim Dodd. They are basically saying the same things that most of the "anti Elon" folks in this thread have been saying. Dave Lee has been too.

Tim Dodd says Elon's involvement in social media is much less important (and less inspiring) than his involvement in Tesla and SpaceX. Lex Fridman thinks social media is very important but he wants Elon to get out of divisive politics. Is there any chance we can step back, look at the big picture, and find some common ground here instead of bickering over minutia?

 

[ElectricIAC]

This is a fight worth fighting for Elon.

It’s truly incredible how fast and how aggressive the push toward crybully groupthink culture spread and it is no longer sustainable to continue with a live and let live approach to it.

It is a cancer and should be treated as such, that’s the motivation and I support EM’s ventures in aid of eradicating it.

 

[TSLY]

And layoffs in the 10s of thousands throughout Silicon Valley . . . are the Execs of Google, Facebook, Intel, etc. any better?

Yes. They have empathy for their employees and treat them with civility and respect.

 

[bkp_duke]

Yes. They have empathy for their employees and treat them with civility and respect.

No, they don't. They just disguise their motives better than Elon, and are better liars.

Empathy? You honestly think anyone in the C-suite of any of these companies legitimately CARES about their employees?

 

[Daniel in SD]

This is a fight worth fighting for Elon.

How will we know if he’s won?

No, they don't. They just disguise their motives better than Elon, and are better liars.

Empathy? You honestly think anyone in the C-suite of any of these companies legitimately CARES about their employees?

View attachment 902622

Not everyone is a sociopath (supposedly it may be up to 12% of CEOs?). Anyway, who cares what the motives are, they’re treating their ex-employees way better.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Google was profitable, even before Musk Twitter was a black hole for money. Gigantic sucking sound.

This is not correct, I remember this already being pointed out up thread, Twitter was profitable for the 7 quarters leading up to the sale, with the last reporting quarter (Q2 2022) loss partially due to the uncertainty due to sale and partially the declining economy.

Twitter: quarterly net income 2022 | Statista

In the last reported quarter, social network Twitter had a net loss of 270 million U.S.

www.statista.com

Elon's purchase not only added ~$1.2 billion in annual interest load to expenses, but also his shenanigans scared off a bunch of ad revenue (beyond what would have been lost due to downturn in economy). Basically, if sale didn't go through, Twitter would have been able to break even with a much smaller round of layoffs (to account for economic downturn). Now it's not even clear if it can break even with such extreme cost cutting (including skipping on rent and bills).

 

[TSLY]

No, they don't. They just disguise their motives better than Elon, and are better liars.

You mean QElon? Many fawners on this forum treat Musk like he's Q.

 

[daniel]

If they had time to make tik toks about playing grab ass and drinking “wine on tap” on company time, they’re probably in that category.

Elon strikes me as a “If you got time to lean, you got time to clean” kinda guy. We need more of that.

Are you claiming that all those people fired by Elon were making TicToks about playing grab ass and drinking wine on tap on company time? If so, I call bullshit. In any large company or organization there are bound to be a few malingerers. But to tar an entire group of people by pointing to those few among them who are untrustworthy, is, frankly, disgusting.

Of course, you don't come right out and accuse them. You just say "If..." Well, I agree: Anybody who was playing with their phone and grabbing people's asses rather than working deserved to be fired. But again, implying that an entire group of people are sex offenders and good-for-nothings, without evidence, is as vile and disgusting as making an actual accusation.

It was reported here on TMC that Musk sent out an email demanding that Twitter employees start working longer hours (I presume for no increase in pay) or they would be fired. So let's be honest: Musk fired a shirt-ton of workers because he wanted to get more work out of them for no additional pay, because like all billionaires, he doesn't think he has enough billions. And then when he realized that he had stupidly fired the people he needs to make the company run, he tried to hire them back. It's also been reported, elsewhere, that Musk is a terrible person to work for.

I admire what Musk did with Tesla and SpaceX. My Model 3 is the best car on the road. But his antics at Twitter are embarrassing and unjustifiable.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Well, I agree: Anybody who was playing with their phone and grabbing people's asses rather than working deserved to be fired.

It’s a figure of speech, like Jollylagging.

 

[italian bread]

Ever consider there may be malefactors still within the company? A good chunk of those who were canned were likely little more than fork and spoon operators.

Either provide proof or a source for this or don’t malign people based on gut feeling.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Either provide proof or a source for this or don’t malign people based on gut feeling.

The proof is in the pudding regarding the 75% who had their wings clipped. Twitter is still running isn’t it?

 

[Daniel in SD]

The proof is in the pudding regarding the 75% who had their wings clipped. Twitter is still running isn’t it?

What percentage of the Twitter workforce was tasked with keeping it running versus selling ads, adding new features, and moderation (which helps sell ads!)?
The only new feature I’ve seen is the view count and moving “for you” vs. “following” selection to the timeline.
Really we won’t know if it’s a success until the wok mind virus is defeated (I see no sign of that either, if anything there have been new mind viruses introduced), it becomes publicly traded again, or it goes bankrupt.

 

[advocate8]

The proof is in the pudding regarding the 75% who had their wings clipped. Twitter is still running isn’t it?

Remember those giant two-legged fighting robots in Star Wars 2? And how, once you killed one, it took about half an hour for the thing to fall?

 

[ElectricIAC]

Remember those giant two-legged fighting robots in Star Wars 2? And how, once you killed one, it took about half an hour for the thing to fall?

Interesting analogy.

I have a little more faith in Twitter than that.

 

[ohmman]

Remember those giant two-legged fighting robots in Star Wars 2? And how, once you killed one, it took about half an hour for the thing to fall?

AT-AT Walkers.

 

[advocate8]

I really wish Elon and the "pro Elon" folks here would listen to two of Elon's biggest fans and boosters: Lex Fridman and Tim Dodd. They are basically saying the same things that most of the "anti Elon" folks in this thread have been saying. Dave Lee has been too.

Tim Dodd says Elon's involvement in social media is much less important (and less inspiring) than his involvement in Tesla and SpaceX. Lex Fridman thinks social media is very important but he wants Elon to get out of divisive politics. Is there any chance we can step back, look at the big picture, and find some common ground here instead of bickering over minutia?

when you join a cult it’s pretty much all or nothing.
But I do think we can at least mostly agree on the fact that Tesla makes freaking great cars and we love ours.

 

[advocate8]

AT-AT Walkers.

View attachment 902716

Ok, ok, they had FOUR legs. So they took more like an hour to come down.
I was just a kid then, couldn’t count that high.

 

[ohmman]

Ok, ok, they had FOUR legs. So they took more like an hour to come down.
I was just a kid then, couldn’t count that high.

You might have been thinking of an AT-ST walker, which has two legs. But I think they fell pretty quick.

And I promise, I'm not a Star Wars nerd - I had to look these up. Really. I did.

 

[advocate8]

You might have been thinking of an AT-ST walker, which has two legs. But I think they fell pretty quick.

And I promise, I'm not a Star Wars nerd - I had to look these up. Really. I did.

Uh huh. Yeah. Sure.

 

[Buckminster]

Nice to hear from Elon this message:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1621298953819131905

There will be a loss of innovation following this but a good thing overall. With APIs comes great power:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1621259936524300289